Rapid City
Rapid City is a major coastal seaport located on Whidbey Island in Island County, Washington. As of the 2020 US Census, the population within the city limits was 149,614, making it the largest city on Whidbey Island as well as the fifth largest city in Washington. Located at the northern tip of Whidbey Island near Deception Pass State Park, Rapid City lies in the foothills with the Pacific Ocean to the west and the Skagit Bay to the north. Rapid City was originally founded in 1882 as North Whidbey Island before being renamed Rapid City in 1915 after the death of city founder Charles Randall. History Founding Archaeological excavations suggest that Native Americans have inhabited the Rapid City area for at least 4,000 years. The area was inhabited by members of the Lower Skagit, Swinomish, Suquamishand Snohomish tribes. Europeans arrived in 1792 when Captain George Vancouver led an expedition of what would become known as Whidbey Island. Joseph Whidbey circumnavigated the island in June of that year and Vancouver subsequently named the island in his honor. The first known land claim in the area was filed by a blacksmith from Detroit by the name of Charles Randall in 1876. Randall built a small cabin and started a farm before sending for his wife in 1878. The couple would spend their rest of their lives on Whidbey Island giving birth to six children. Randall helped build new cabins as other settlers started to move in. By 1880 over 100 people had moved to the area and the town was incorporated as North Whidbey Island on March 9, 1882. Houses and businesses quickly sprouted up throughout the 1890s and the population skyrocketed to over 1,000 citizens by 1900. Immigration from Russia and Japan helped the population surge to nearly 4,000 by just 1910. Founder's death and city rebrand After battling lung cacer for a number of years, North Whidbey Island's founder Charles Randall passed away on June 4, 1915 at his family home. A public memorial service was held on Main Street on June 25 to celebrate Mr. Randall's life. Four months after Randall's life, a city hall meeting was called to discuss plans to immortalize the city's founder. After two months of meetings, plans were announced a week before Christmas for a new statue to be erected on Main Street. The city council also revealed they had voted 5-0 to rename the city to Rapid City, named for the birthplace of Charles Randall. Construction on Founder's Park near Main Street began in the summer of 1916 and opened to the public in April 1917. The main attraction is a 50-foot tall bronze statue of Charles Randall wielding a hammer from his days as a blacksmith in Detroit. The city officially adopted its new name of Rapid City on January 1, 1917 with the final signs changed by May of the same year. Growth and expansion The city's growth coinciding with two major events: the building of Deception Pass Bridge on July 31, 1935, and the completion of Naval Air Station Whidbey Islandon September 21, 1942. The city was a strategic base during World War II and after the war population grew by nearly 50%. In the 1960s, a new highway was constructed running through the core of the city that helped population grow to over 80,000 people by 1970. As of 2010, the city had over 120,000 citizens. Demographics According to the 2020 United States Census, Rapid City had a population 134,942 with a racial and ethnic composition as follows: 81.5% Caucasian, 7.6% Asian, 5.1% of African origin, 4.6% Hispanicor Latino of any race, 0.8% Pacific Islander and 0.4% other races. The median age in Rapid City is 36 years old. Within the city, 23% of citizens were under the age of 18, 22% were between the ages of 18 and 24, 35% were from 25 to 44, 12% were from 45 to 64 and 8% were 65 years of age or older. Government Rapid City is within Island County, and is in the 10th Legislative District and 2nd Congressional District of Washington. The city operates under a mayor-council form of government, with executive and legislative branches that are elected in non-partisan elections. Roger Carmichael was elected mayor in November 2002 and took the office on the last business day of the year. Carmichael became the city's longest tenured mayor in 2015 serving for over thirteen years, a full year longer than Jamie Linden who served as the city's mayor for twelve years from 1972 until 1984. Crime The crime rate per 1,000 citizens in Rapid City was 6.79 in 2012, making it one of the safest cities in the entire state. The city is also home to the Island County Penitentiary which houses over 300 convicted felons of violent crimes. Cityscape Neighborhoods Main articles: List of neighborhoods in Rapid City, Downtown Rapid City and Historic Downtown District Rapid City's neighborhoods range from the self-sufficient green homes of Deception Pass to the Historic Downtown District, to the more contemporary neighborhoods of east Rapid City. Rapid City's neighborhoods are gaining attention for their history, as illustrated by the city being home to 18 recognized National Register Historical Districts. Some of Rapid City's best-known neighborhoods are University Village, Thornton Park, Ducken Park, Barlow Square and Deception Pass. The University Village neighborhoods consists primarily of the Whidbey Island University campus and is the heart of education in the city. Downtown Rapid City contains many of the city's public facilities like City Hall. Parks and recreation See: List of parks in Rapid City Commerce and industry See also: List of companies based in Rapid City ''Rapid City's economy is driven by a mix of older industrial companies and "new economy" Internet and technology companies, service, design, and clean technology companies. The Port of Rapid City, which also co-operates the Rapid City-Oak Harbor Regional Airport, is a major gateway for trade with Asia and cruises to Alaska. It remains a hotbed for start-up businesses, especially in green building and clean technologies. Entertainment There are five movie theaters in Rapid City with a total of 45 screens. Three theaters are standalone buidings owned locally by Whidbey Island Theaters while AMC Theatres and Regal Cinemas both have locations inside area malls. *AMC Reign Forest 25 — Reign Forest Shopping Center (25 screens; opened 2015) *Deception Pass Cinema — (3 screens; opened 1998) *Freedom Theatre — (4 screens; opened 1977) *Main Street Cinema — (5 screens; opened 1953; expanded 2016) *Regal Cinema Eastgate — Eastgate Fashion Mall (8 screens; opened 1988) Transportation Major highways * SR 20 * US 101 Turnpike Constructed between 1967 and 1969, the North Whidbey Island Turnpike was designed as a raised highway connecting the SR 20/US 101 interchange to the northend of the city. Between 2009 and 2011 it was redesigned with a portion of it moved underground rather than splitting the neighborhood of Orchard Park in half. Roads Maintained by the North Whidbey Island Roads & Maintence Department, most city streets are highly rated for safety and design. Public transit Public transit is handled by Island Connections Transit who currently operate 28 bus lines, 6 streetcar lines, 7 subway lines and 4 monorails for a weekly ridership of over 5,500 guests. Rail Commuter rail hasn't serviced Rapid City since 2008 when rail service was terminated due to low ridership. Cargo trains still travel through the city although they are mostly limited to moving freight from the port to outside connections rather than traveling to business centers within the city. The Eastgate Cargo Station was demolised in 2014 for an expansion of the Eastgate Park. Air transport Commercial flights have been offered on and off in the city since the 1950s. The small Vanderwell Airfield offered daily flights to Sea-Tac International Airport between 1955 and 1959 before Whidbey Island Flights went out of business. An agreement was made in 1992 with the US Navyto use Naval Air Station Whidbey Island as a commercial terminal until 2006 when flights finally ceased. Rapid City-Oak Harbor Regional Airport broke ground in April 2001 and finally opened to the public on May 6, 2005 with flights to Boise, Portland, Seattle/Tacoma and Spokane. Horizon Air began offering direct flights from ROH to Pullman and Wenatchee in 2015. Cargo is flown out of the Lewis Field cargo terminal at the Port of Rapid City. Education Serving the general educational needs of the local population is the Rapid City Public Library district which was founded in 1961. The Rapid City Public Library systems comprises a downtown flagship library and five branch libraries across the city. Special collections focus on Pacific Northwest history and include reference books, periodicals, map, photographs and other archival materials and government documents. Rapid City School District was organized in 1919 and is the largest public school system on Whidbey Island serving approximately 30,000 students in seven high schools, three middle schools and ten elementary schools. There are also three private and one independent school within city limits that serve a combined 5,000 students. Rapid City is home to many higher education institutions. They include the private universities Eastgate Polytechnical Institute and Rapid City Christian Academy and the public Whidbey Island University and North Whidbey Island Community College. The Whidbey Island University is the oldest institution within city limits, having been founded in 1920 as the Rapid City Community College. The Rapid City Christian Academy opened its doors in 1958 while the North Whidey Island CC opened 11 years later in 1969. Eastgate Polytech was founded in 1995 as a branch campus of University of Washington until funding was pulled in 2001. Later that fall, the institution became the private Eastgate Academy and became the Eastgate Polytechnical Institute in 2015 after opening a brand new campus. Sports ''Main articles: Sports in Rapid City '' and History of soccer in Rapid City'' Professional sports in Rapid City began in 1964 when the Rapid City FC of the West Coast Soccer League played their inaugural season. Today, Rapid City has seven professional sports teams in five different sports: the North American Football League's Rapid City Reign, Pacific Coast League's Rapid City Orcas, Western Hockey League's Rapid City Lightning, North American Basketball League's Rapid City Islanders and United Soccer League's Rapid City SeaDogs FC system. Rapid City has earned a reputation as a "city of champions" as their professional teams have won nearly 20 championships since 1968. The city is also home to the Dodge Raceway Stadium, a quarter-mile racetrack and football facility that is home to two annual NASCAR Touring Series races as well as the official training facility of the Rapid City Reign. Former teams Media Newspaper service in Rapid City is provided by its only major daily newspaper, Whidbey Island Today, ''which has a daily circulation of 27,921 and Sunday circulation of 31,823. ''Whidbey Island Today was formed from the merger of the North Whidbey Island Daily News ''(1892–1921) and the ''Rapid City News Today ''(1918–1921) and was first published under the present name on June 30, 1921. It also absorbed the competing weekly paper ''The Whidbey Weekly, a significant newspaper that exisited from 1889 until 1895. More specialized publiations include the bi-weekly business journal The Rapid City Business Journal, the student-run The Daily Buccaneer, ''and the monthly GLBT newsmagaine ''Q View Whidbey Island. Rapid City is the 119th-largest television market in the US, accounting for 0.203% of the total TV households in the US. The city has four television stations, representing major commericial networks and public television. Rapid City is the televison broadcast center for Whidbey Island and other parts of the San Juan islands. Rapid City receives broadcasts in the Pacific Time Zone, with weekday prime time beginning at 8 pm. The major network television affiliates include KWIT 4 (NBC), KWIU-TV 12 (PBS), KROH 25 (FOX) and KRCC-LD 47 (Independent community channel). imageedit_12_8303515169.png|KWIT 4 on-air logo imageedit_84_8068950401.png|Fox 25 (KROH) on-air logo imageedit_17_3239111573.png|KWIU-TV logo since 2015 Notable people Lana Condor – actress Aleah Chapin – painter Pete Dexter – National Book Award fiction writer David Ossman – founder of Firesign Theater Nancy Horan – best selling author Jeff Alexander – conductor and arranger David Whyte – poet Drew Christie – animator and filmmaker Bruce Bochte – American baseball player. Bochte lived in Rapid City for three years after his career was over. Michael Harring – filmmaker Sister Cities Incheon, South Korea Pierrefort, France